Reince Priebus Pretends Donald Trump Is Popular And Truthful

I have to assume that Reince Priebus was lying on Fox News Sunday because even though he’s never struck me as a particularly intelligent man, he can’t be so stupid as to believe that “every single thing [Donald Trump has] done has been factual” or that Democrats are “completely out of touch with the American people.” Predictably, host Chris Wallace did not remind Priebus that Democrat Hillary Clinton trounced Trump in the popular vote.

In his interview with Priebus, Wallace played a clip of White House spokesman Josh Earnest saying, “Mr. Trump obviously knew that Russia was engaged in malicious cyber activity that was helping him and hurting Secretary Clinton’s campaign.”

WALLACE: Two questions. One, do you flatly deny any contact, any coordination between Mr. Trump, his campaign, his associates and the Russians in interfering?

PRIEBUS: Even this question is insane. Of course, we didn’t interface with the Russians. I mean, this whole thing is a spin job.

The question, at least at this point, is really what did Trump know about the Russian interference, when did he know it and how did he respond. But by seeming to follow up on Earnest’s comment while actually asking about something different, something that Wallace almost surely knew would be disputed, it gave the appearance that Priebus had refuted Earnest when, in fact, he had not.

Instead of following up with a “What did Trump know about what the Russians were doing, Wallace sat silent and acquiescent as Priebus changed the subject to attacking Democrats.

PRIEBUS: And I think what the Democrats ought to do is look in the mirror and face the reality that they lost the election. And they lost the election because they’re so and completely out of touch with the American people that they’re so shell-shocked and they can’t believe it.

And what is their response? Recounts, Russians, leaked CIA reports, and now the press secretary of the president saying that the reason Hillary Clinton lost wasn’t because she blew it in Benghazi, she blew it with Russia, she blew it as secretary of state, she ignored the entire Midwest, and people didn’t like the product. That’s why Hillary Clinton lost.

Part of Priebus’ reply: “I think every single thing he’s done has been factual and has been in line with where 80 percent of the American people are at.”

Wallace should have laughed in Priebus’ face at such a lie. Not only is Trump extremely dishonest, he can’t even get over the 50% line in favorability. Fox News’ poll gave him an election bounce to a 47% approval rating while noting that Barack Obama was at 68% after he won election in December, 2008. CBS News’ poll found Trump with a 32% favorability.

But instead of challenging Priebus, Wallace said, “OK” and changed the subject.

Watch it below, from the December 18, 2016 Fox News Sunday. Feel free to tweet your thoughts to Priebus @Reince or to the show @FoxNewsSunday.

Fox News is happily playing the role of obedient lapdog to the incoming Pence Administration and Chris Wallace is demonstrating how this will work. It is completely consistent with how Fox News and the Right have dealt now with four successive presidents. When Bill Clinton was president, that meant that everything around the White House was suspect and needed to be challenged. When W got away with the Florida mess in 2000 and was selected by the Supreme Court, this meant that honor was restored and that anyone criticizing the White House was now a traitor. When Obama was elected in 2009, everything was once again suspect, since everybody knows Obama wasn’t even an American citizen or a Christian. When Trump squeaked in, this once again meant that day is night and night is day again. So it follows logically that whatever Donald Trump says is the truth and everyone in America agrees with him. At least everyone that the Right Wing thinks counts.

Three million more people voted for Clinton? Not to worry, those are just people who live in California or New York and their votes don’t count. Besides, millions of them are obviously undocumented aliens who are fraudulently voting, didn’t you know?

Pence doesn’t have a mandate? For shame, of course he does, thanks to that record-setting Electoral College landslide. It wasn’t a landslide? But Trump won so many counties, right? He only won most of them by a razor thin margin? For shame, don’t bother us with facts – we’re talking about the mandate Pence now has.

I really wouldn’t expect the Dems to mount anything other than a token opposition. They didn’t get their reputation for caving by accident. We can expect them to make a few peeps as the Pence cabinet is swept into place, and maybe a peep or two more about the Supreme Court, but they won’t actually stop anything. As we were told by the Dems when W was installing a bad cabinet in 2001: “The President has the right to appoint the Cabinet he wants”. Even if that Cabinet includes David Duke, apparently.

As The Year of the Bully begins in earnest, we can look forward to plenty of coverage just like this, while Pence happily goes to work dismantling everything he can of our social and governmental infrastructure. And Fox News and the Right will be standing shoulder to shoulder with Pence, approvingly cheering the carnage.

The last time I saw reporting this supine, it was in a George Orwell book. Because we are at war with Eastasia. We have always been at war with Eastasia. We are allies with Eurasia. We have always been allies with Eurasia. All the books say so. Because we burned all the books that didn’t.